I loved the commentary on the last portion of this verse… first the verse in a few different versions:
1 PETER 1:12
- It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you. These things have now been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—angels long to catch a glimpse of these things (CSB)
- It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you in regard to the things that have now been announced to you by those who brought you the good news through the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. These are things that even the angels desire to look into. (ISV)
- It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things. (NIV)
- It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. (ESV)
1 Peter 1:12 was mentioned in a recent sermon at my church, and I was fiddling with my Logos app and came across this (I kept the footnotes for the seminary grad):
The final clause with its reference to angelic desire (ἐπιθυμοῦσιν)91 and activity (παρακύψαι)92 poses the riddle of how these ἄγγελοι (“angels”) are to be understood. While there was a tradition that angelic knowledge about redemption was superior to that of human beings,93 the thrust of this clause seems rather to reflect an equally widespread tradition of the angels’ lack of knowledge94 and of their resultant inferiority to human beings.95 Hence they desire merely to glimpse96 what is now openly proclaimed in the gospel.97 Whether this further implies an envy on the part of the angels,98 who can only see but not share in those salvific events, or whether the import is angelic fascination with these divine events now playing themselves out among human beings,99 is difficult to determine on the basis of the limited evidence presented in the text. What does seem to be implied is that this angelic desire points to the greatness of what Christians now hear announced to them,100 and further underlines one of the author’s main purposes for writing the letter: the readers live in a time firmly under God’s control when history is about to reach its climax. They therefore have reason rather to rejoice than to despair.101
The import of the verse as a whole serves to reinforce the idea of the unity of the origin and content of the witness of the OT and the Christian gospel: as the Spirit of Christ informed the message of the prophets, the Holy Spirit impels the proclamation of the gospel.102 That unity centers in Jesus Christ, the announcement of whose appearance (ἃ νῦν ἀνηγγέλη) is the fulfillment of the prophets’ message103 and is itself the beginning of the eschatological fulfillment they foresaw.104 That that new reality can already shape the lives of those who live within it is the thrust of the ethical admonitions that commence in the next section of the letter.
Paul J. Achtemeier, 1 Peter: A Commentary on First Peter, ed. Eldon Jay Epp, Hermeneia—a Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1996), 112–113.
91 Chevallier (“1 Pierre 1/1 à 2/10,” 140) identifies it as a word whose precise meaning is hard to determine; he thinks it was chosen to serve as catchword with the ἐπιθυμίαις in v. 14*.
92 The “things” (ἅ) that they desire to glimpse are the τὰ … δόξας of v. 11*, which function as the antecedent of the other two pronouns (αὐτά, ἅ) in this verse as well.
93 It is reflected in such passages as Dan 7:16*; Zech 1:9*; 1 Enoch 1.2; 72.1; 108.5–7; Philo Fug. 203; cf. Kelly, 63.
94 It is reflected in such passages as Mark 13:32*; Rom 16:25*; 1 Cor 2:8*; 1 Enoch 16.3; 2 Enoch 24.3; Ignatius Eph. 19.1; they learn of redemption from the church, Eph 3:10*.
95 On angelic inferiority, see 1 Cor 6:3*; Heb 1:14*; 2:16*; as messengers, see Gal 1:8*; on their language, see 1 Cor 13:1*. That that implies that the angels here being discussed are the “dark spiritual forces that hold sway over the lower realms of being” (so Beare, 94) is unlikely, however; Eph 3:10* is probably a closer analogy than 1 Cor 2:8*.
96 The word παρακύψαι probably emphasizes here less the act of “peeping into” (as, e.g., John 20:5*) than the looking forth (a use Hart [48] notes it has assumed in LXX Greek) by the angels from heaven (e.g., 1 Enoch 9.1). Michaels (49) notes correctly that the point is their intense interest in the salvific events, with the implied limitations on their knowledge; more than that our author does not wish to say about angelic beings.
97 Kühschelm, “Lebendige Hoffnung,” 205; cf. Reicke, 81. See also n. 44 on 1:7* above.
98 So, e.g., Kühschelm, “Lebendige Hoffnung,” 205; Hillyer (“Servant,” 147) notes a tradition of angelic envy of humans as a result of the dignity that the Aqedah (sacrifice of Isaac) confers upon humanity, but none of the references cited (n. 35: Tanḥuma Wayyera 18; Soṭa 6.5; Gen. Rab. 56.3) even remotely supports this point.
99 So, e.g., Moffatt, 102; Calvin (43) thought it meant the angelic desire to see the kingdom of Christ, a living image of which is set forth in the gospel; Thomas Aquinas thought it meant that angels, rather than being frustrated at their lack of knowledge, never weary of knowing God’s plans (cited in Spicq, 57).
100 So, e.g., Leaney, 22; de Villiers, “Joy,” 74; Spicq, “La Ia Petri” 55; Scharlemann, “Descant,” 16.
101 So also Goppelt, 108–9. To find with Schweizer (30) that it means that the future glory of the return of Christ is greater than any angelic glory is perhaps to find more than is in the text.
102 So also Kelly, 62; Schweizer, 29. We are probably not to understand differing origins for the message of prophets (πνεῦμα Χριστοῦ) and evangelists (πνεῦμα ἅγιον) so much as to see the common origin of both in the divine Spirit who underlies both activities. The emphasis in v. 11* on the Spirit of Christ points to that figure as the center of both witnesses, something obvious in the case of the gospel. On this point see also Schelkle, 42; Hiebert, “Peter’s Thanksgiving,” 102.
103 Hort, 59; Margot, 26; cf. Brox, “Pseudepigraphischen Rahmung,” 70.
104 Cf. Goppelt, 109.